Senate lawmakers on Thursday discussed military spending matters as they work to strike a budget deal for fiscal 2018 before the current continuing resolution expires on Jan. 19, Defense News reported Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said Thursday in a floor speech that reductions to discretionary defense spending have exceeded nondefense spending cuts by approximately $85 billion since fiscal 2013.

McConnell’s statement was in response to Democrats’ push for equal increases in defense and nondefense spending.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said McConnell failed to cite increases to overseas contingency operations funds that are not covered by budget caps.

“If you include the overseas contingency operations funding, the reality is that overall defense spending has gone up, not down, over this time period while non-defense discretionary spending has been severely cut,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has called for a budget agreement that incorporates a package for health care, disaster aid and protection for young immigrants covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“Ultimately the budget agreement must lift the caps with parity between defense and urgent domestic priorities,” Schumer added.

The U.S. Air Force aims to complete by spring a new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flight plan that will cover operations of the service branch’s future platforms and technologies such as artificial intelligence systems, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson, USAF’s deputy chief of staff for ISR, told C4ISRNET the plan will include five-year increments through 2035 and strategies to address future threats in the air, cyber and space domains.

The blueprint will also dictate hardware systems that the service branch must acquire to comply with future requirements for sensors and unmanned aerial systems, the report noted.

USAF also included software acquisition strategies in the plan.

The Treasury Department has prohibited from dealing with the U.S. five Iran-based companies for their involvement in activities that support the Middle Eastern country’s ballistic missile development efforts.

The five entities are considered subordinates to Iran-based Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group that has been sanctioned by the U.S., United Nations and the European Union for its role as a developer and manufacturer of solid-propellant ballistic missiles for Iran, the Treasury said Thursday.

The five Iranian entities include:

• Shahid Eslami Research Center
• Shahid Kharrazi Industries
• Shahid Moghaddam Industries
• Shahid Sanikhani Industries
• Shahid Shustari Industries

“These sanctions target key entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program, which the Iranian regime prioritizes over the economic well-being of the Iranian people,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The U.S. Navy will kick off an effort to replace its fleet of 27 C-2A Greyhound aircraft with 38 CMV-22B Osprey aircraft this year, with plans to conduct transition from 2020 through 2026, USNI News reported Wednesday.

The U.S. Fleet Forces Command issued a draft environmental assessment that includes new details on the planned transition, which was announced in January 2015.

C-2A planes provide personnel and cargo delivery support to the Navy’s fleet of nuclear aircraft carriers in U.S. and abroad.

The CMV-22B Osprey variant will feature a larger fuel tank, additional communications platforms and a public address system and will be based at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and Naval Air Station North Island in California, where C-2As currently operate.

The Navy aims to achieve full operational capability for CMV-22B in 2024 and conduct full deployment in 2028, the assessment document noted.

The service branch will start facility upgrades this year, although it has yet to decide where to place the Fleet Replacement Squadron that will train all Navy Osprey pilots.

President Donald Trump intends to nominate William Roper, director of the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, as assistant secretary for acquisition at the U.S. Air Force.

Trump announced the planned nomination in a White House release posted Wednesday.

Roper assumed his current role in August 2012 after he previously served as chief architect at the Missile Defense Agency.

He was part of the technical staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he analyzed national security issues.

Roper also served as a missile defense adviser to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology as well as a doctorate in mathematics from Oxford University.